Herriott is founder of the 25th Project, which for the past year has organized an event to help D.C.-area homeless on the 25th of each month. His daughters, 12-year-old Marissa and 10-year-old Leyanah, have also helped with the project this year. Interested in helping? Email him at [email protected].
What is the 25th Project?
It actually started about nine years ago. On Thanksgiving, I … went out and found homeless people who had not eaten that day. … I saw that Thanksgiving was the 25th this year. We set the 25th aside every month and do stuff. That’s what we’ve been doing this year. Every 25th of the month, we go out and help the homeless. Whether it’s a coat drive, food, or just talking to them. [2011] was the first year where we’ve done things every month.
What are your goals?
The goals are to help the homeless close to home. My long-term goal would be to get the homeless back as productive members of society. … There’s a lot of guys out there who don’t need a handout, but need a hand up.
Is there any part of the region where you’re focusing your projects?
We’ve always taken the meals downtown in D.C. That’s been the main concentration. We’ve recently made pretty good contact with these homeless guys in Woodbridge.
How do you get the food and other items you provide?
We’ve gotten donations. … The owner of Burke Cigar said to me back in October, “We need to do a coat drive.” … We collected 50 coats and were able to go distribute them.
What are some of your upcoming projects?
On Jan. 25, we’re going to do soup and socks. We’re going to collect socks. We’ve had several people volunteer to make big bowls of soup. We’ll go through what our schedule is for the 25th for projects for the whole year.
